My friend and former NYU classmate Sandy Ikeda adds his insights[8] to the explanation of why Pres. Obama and Elizabeth Warren are mistaken to suppose that, because government does X which (we can presume for argument’s sake) is beneficial to private entrepreneurs, then successful private entrepreneurs somehow owe a special, open-ended debt to government.

[2] Matt Mitchell, one of my colleagues at GMU’s Mercatus Center, weighs in on the mischief and resulting maladies of cronyism: http://mercatus.org/publication/pathology-privilege-economic-consequences-government-favoritism

[3] Jonah Goldberg’s optimism that conservatives are becoming more ideologically principled in their support for free markets: http://www.aei.org/article/business-vs-markets

[4] Steve Horwitz also has valuable things to say about cronyism: http://libertylawsite.org/2012/07/26/the-deadwood-of-crony-capitalism/

[5] Wendy McElroy reflects on the institutions of freedom: http://lfb.org/today/freedom-is-dead-long-live-freedom/

[7] Although written in 1998, this essay by Sue Blevins is a sobering reminder that friends of genuinely free markets ought not put much hope in the Republican party: http://www.thefreemanonline.org/features/guess-who-paved-the-road-to-socialized-medicine/